Skype a Scientist

We’ve been matched! I’m honored you’ve selected me to talk with your class about my life as a scientist! So to start out - I’ll tell you a little about myself.

My name is Rowan (pronounced Ruh-wahn). I come from a family of immigrants and I’m the first one to attend college. I knew from a young age that I liked nature, “science” and thinking about things differently than others. That doesn’t mean it was an easy path to get to where I am now, though.

For example, I failed out of college the first time I attended. I felt lost, didn’t think I was smart enough, and didn’t really know what I was doing. And yet, here I am. I’m now a strong believer that anyone can accomplish anything if they work hard at it and don’t give up. It sounds cliche but I’m living proof of it. I’m happy to share more anecdotes about all my additional failures throughout graduate school if you ask nicely ; )

Now that you’re a bit more familiar with my background, here’s what I spent 4 years and countless nights and weekends working on:

So to recap: Arsenic is a naturally occurring metal. It’s linked to some really bad side effects like cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. I studied its link to diabetes. The research I performed looked for small non-coding RNAs as the missing link between arsenic and diabetes.